MOONDIAL

The latest offering from American jazz guitar virtuoso Pat Metheny features thirteen chord-melody inventions for solo guitar. As always, his technique is beyond compare, delivering even the most technically demanding passages with a tender right hand that just barely brushes the notes into being. Compositionally (or rather on the level of arrangement, since many of the songs are renditions of standards) he makes the most of his chosen instrument, with melodies leaping clearly out of the chords beneath, and under everything always a moving bassline that's so rich and independent that it could pass for an electric bass playing alongside him. To my ears, the sound is similar in many ways to contemporary classical guitarists who have been influenced by jazz trends (namely Andrew York and Per-Oliver Kindgren). Certainly part of what makes the textural palette work so well is his instrument. The album is performed on a custom guitar by Linda Manzer, a baritone nylon-string acoustic. Such a unique instrument really makes the music on the album possible, since it combines the dark and mellow tones of classical guitar with the expanded range of a baritone instrument (which in today's market can be hard to get outside of a DiMarzio-laden SuperStrat electric). The album is consistently strong throughout, but some highlights for me include: the Beatles cover ("Here, There and Everywhere") that evolves smoothly into something less and less connected to the original, like a proper set of variations on a theme; the slinky blues fills that punctuate "Falcon Love" and "Everything Happens to Me", and; the carefree strum-fest of "Shōga". If I have any complaint about the album, it's that for its considerable length it relies a little too much on rubato and free time, and that occasionally leaves the music feeling lost or meandering, lacking focus and structure. Obviously this is a major part of the style he's performing, so I'd say leaving off two or three songs for later use would largely negate the tedious effect that such rampant rubato can cause. That being said, each song is still great, and I score the album highly. I just think it could've been slightly reworked into an even more effective whole.

Track Rating: MoonDial (9) La Crosse (8) You're Everything (7) Here, There and Everywhere (9) We Can't See It, But It's There (9) Falcon Love (9) Everything Happens To Me / Somewhere (8) Londonderry Air (8) This Belongs to You (8) Shōga (9) (my personal favourite) My Love and I (8) Angel Eyes (7) MoonDial - Epilogue (9)

Overall Rating: 8.3/10, or, 4 Stars. Perfect music for lonely winter nights and hours of quiet contemplation.